The Red Rubber Regime

INTRODUCTION The Red Rubber Regime Prior to 1880, the countries ofEurope claimed relatively few territorial possessions in Africa. The British occupied several coastal pockets in West Africa, including Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Lagos; the French held territory along the North African coast in Algiers, and in Senegal and Gabon in West Africa; and Portuguese rule was extended to portions ofAngola along the west coast and Mozambique along the east coast. Except for the Afrikaner penetration into the South and Turkish claims in North Africa, Egypt, and the Nile region, the vast interior of the continent was largely unexplored and remained under the control of African government. However, all this would change during the next twenty years. By the beginning ofthe twentieth century the continent would be divided into forty states under the control ofvarious European countries. The colonial partition ofAfrica was initiated by King Leopold II of Belgium, whose greed and exploitation in the Congo knew no bounds, and by the sudden territorial claims made by Germany from 1883 to 1885. Leopold used the newly created International African Association to carry out his secret ambitions in central Africa. The African Association was organized in Brussels in 1876 at a meeting of explorers, geographers, and other delegates, lavishly hosted by the Belgian king. Although the stated purpose of the association was to further scientific and commercial development, to eradicate the slave trade, and to aid the work ofChristian missions, in reality it was used by Leopold as a cover for his colonial activities. The actions ofLeopold and Germany opened the floodgates for other European nations to rush in and stake their own claims. Initially, the actions ofthese other nations were motivated by the balance of power in Europe rather than the 2 INTRODUCTION conquest of territory and the creation of empires. I But this fact was irrelevant to the subjected peoples ofAfrica. It was Henry M. Stanley, the British-American explorer and journalist, who opened up the Congo to the outside world. Stanley attracted international attention when he 'found' Livingstone in November 1871. However, by 1873 Livingstone was dead; and Stanley, one of his pallbearers, also became his successor. Stanley's famous journey from Zanzibar on the east coast ofAfrica to Boma on the west coast, made between 1874 and 1877, also became international news.2 Failing to attract British investors in his drive to open up the Congo for development, in June 1878 Stanley turned to Leopold II of Belgium who was "haunted by the dream of carving out some piece of the unexplored world as an overseas empire for Belgium."3 Leopold hired Stanley and supplied him with a working capital of$200,000 from his private purse. Acting as Leopold's agent, and at the behest of the International African Association, Stanley worked in the Congo basin from 1879 to 1884 where he secured 450 land titles from Congolese chiefs, built a road from the lower Congo up to Stanley Pool, placed steamers on the upper Congo River, and established more than twenty trading posts. During all ofthis activity, Stanley, who employed rough methods and often dealt harshly with the Africans, earned the Congo lese name "Bula Matadi," which means "Breaker ofRocks." Stanley's work paved the way for the creation of the Congo Free State.4 While Stanley believed that he was following in Livingstone's footsteps by opening the Congo to development and progress, he was actually playing into the hands ofLeopold. When Stanley returned to Europe in 1884, a conference on the future of the Congo was held in Germany. The Berlin Conference of 15 September 1884 to 26 February 1885 was attended by fourteen nations, including the United States and the leading European powers. The conference formally recognized the territorial integrity of the Congo and handed the country over to I Roland Oliver and 1. D. Fage, A Short History ofAfrica (London: Penguin Books, 1988), 163. 2 Stanley's account of the journey was published in his book, Through the Dark Continent; Or, The Sources ofthe Nile . .. (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1878). 3 Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble For Africa: The White Man's Conquest ofthe Dark Continentfrom 1876 to 1912 (New York: Random House, 1991), 13. See also Chaps. 1-2,9, 14, 18,22,24,29,32, and 37. 4 Stanley wrote about his years oflabor in the Congo in The Congo and the Founding ofits Free State; A Story ofWork and Exploration (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1885)..

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